Page 39 of Sleeping With the Vampire

Behind me, a man with a basket full of canned food said, “Been happening all over the county. Chickens stopped laying eggs, many dying. People say there’s something in the river water, they’re only watering from their own taps.”

“What’s going on?”

The man was unshaven with a long, unkempt beard. “End of times, I reckon. Time to head for the hills. Before the vampires come,” he said darkly.

“They said there was a delivery coming from Springfield later,” the shop girl said, disinterestedly. “There will be fruit on it, probably, eggs, I think.”

“Springfield is southeast,” the man mumbled, pushing past me to pay for his goods. “May be safer out there. I have a cousin somewhere there. Should maybe take the wife out there.”

He suddenly dumped his basket filled with goods on the floor and rushed out to his truck, taking off with screaming tires.

“Seein’ that all the time now,” the girl drawled.

I went back to get the last few bags of flour and sugar, thinking if nothing else, I could bake some bread. My mother had a few chickens around the yard and there had been eggs in the henhouse that morning.

“You’re not scared?”

She looked at me and there was something in her eyes that filled me with dread.

“Nah-ah,” she shrugged. “I like change,” she said in a dreamy voice. “Things need to change around here.”

I noticed she was very skinny, like someone who perhaps didn’t worry too much about food anyway. Her pupils were big and I realized she was high, barely aware of what was going on around her.

But I was worried.

We were far from the capital and the Grey Mountains but if a war were too break out, it would affect us too. I thought of my mother and worried about her on her own. I called one of my mother’s friends, who was living alone in town and asked if she’d come out to stay with my mother for a bit.

The woman, Frieda, had two dogs that would at least bark and scare off intruders.

“I’m glad you called,” Frieda said. “I guess you’ve been hearing the rumors too? My neighbors have said they’re going to stay over in the hills for a bit. But I don’t know about that.”

Frieda said she knew of another family that might also be looking for a safe place to say. A young family with a baby. I told her there would be space at our house. My mother wouldn’t mind, I knew. She’d stay in her greenhouse, tending to her orchids as whatever foul winds blew overhead.

But I was feeling very uneasy.

Despite myself, I worried about Lucca and whether he would be safe in the castle. He didn’t want to face the truth and I hoped it wouldn’t be the end of him. Even though I couldn’t admit it to anyone, I cared about him.

More than I had cared about anyone before.

Chapter 14

Lucca

My recovery took longer than I would have liked.

I am able to get up for a few hours, but then I become tired and have to lie down and rest. I am taking all sorts of potions and even though I’m improving, the progress is slow. It is infuriating as I can feel how things are happening behind the scenes. I want to go up to the Citadel, but it is too dangerous now.

Finn reports back that Sunil has gone into hiding. His shapeshifter crow has been to the house but nobody has been there in days. The city is in turmoil and rumors of imminent war are all anyone talks about.

Layrr bursts into the room and announces that our blood bank has been blown up.

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“The entire facility was destroyed yesterday morning. The official story is a gas leak but it was timed very carefully for right after the last truck left and there was no supply. The fresh donations had already been transported to the manufacturing plant.”

“So, it was a calculated move to hurt us?” I am thinking out loud.

“And they killed our people on the scene,” says Layrr. “They’ve effectively shut us down.”

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